# Puff Monthly Tobacco Review: Rattray's Hal O' the Wynd



## Nick S. (Jul 10, 2011)

February is here, so it is time to pop open those tins of Hal O' the Wynd and post your reviews, thoughts, and comments.

Who's first?


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## szyzk (Nov 27, 2010)

I'll go!

I have to admit: HOTW was one of the first pipe tobaccos I tried (14 or 15 months ago) and it did nothing for me. I found it bland and, quite frankly, a waste of time. I just didn't get it. After trying it today I can attribute my initial disinterest in the blend to user error because this one, folks, is a great tobacco! To anyone reading this who's new to pipe tobacco: don't give up on a blend. Tuck it away, forget about it, and when you have a better grasp on things, revisit it!

Frankly I feel like an oaf at times with this stuff, and commonly revert to "it's good" and "it's terrible" because my palate still isn't accustomed to the less in-your-face flavors than I'm used to with cigars, but I'll give this a shot.

My first thought about HOTW is the sharp smells coming from the can. Fresh hay, tart fruits, maybe a touch of vinegar and something that's hard to describe - almost a yeasty smell familiar to those of us who brew beer. After letting a few large pinches from the tin thoroughly dry out, I greedily loaded up my bowl and started puffing... What a wonderful, natural VA taste! Deep hay, slightly acidic tones, a yeasty, malty, bready taste throughout. Light fruit and sweet tobacco notes filled the room. I can dig pretty deep into cigar flavors but I find that pipe tobaccos can sometimes elude me but the flavors seemed to shift enough (without me being able to pinpoint all of them) to keep the entire bowl very interesting. Enough so, I must say, that I loaded up a second bowl right after. 

I found HOTW to be medium in both body (I know you guys don't talk about body the way us cigar guys do, but it does make sense...) because it wasn't too heavy a smoke in the mouth, and medium in nicotine (definitely not as strong as some others that I've smoked).

This tobacco burned straight down to the bottom of the bowl both times - it was very much not fussy at all!

I cellared 50g, so I can't wait to try some aged. But, I'll be more than happy to continue smoking this fresh.


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## Nick S. (Jul 10, 2011)

Nice Review Andrew! HOTW is a great tobacco, however once you have it aged you will never want it fresh again... that is the problem I am having now, I have none with any real age on it... the stuff I have is so young it just wont be able to compare...


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## Desertlifter (Feb 22, 2011)

Subscribed. My turn is coming...


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## Hermit (Aug 5, 2008)

HOTW is one of my staples. :tu
Ranks #2 by weight in my stash.


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## szyzk (Nov 27, 2010)

Nick S. said:


> Nice Review Andrew! HOTW is a great tobacco, however once you have it aged you will never want it fresh again... that is the problem I am having now, I have none with any real age on it... the stuff I have is so young it just wont be able to compare...


Thanks Nick! I ordered two 100g cans so I'll smoke 50g fresh, I put 50g in a mason jar to be opened in no earlier than 6 months, and I'll do my best to forget about the other can.

In the meantime I'm adding HOTW to my list of 15 or so blends I want to put away in bulk, so I'll be buying more of it!


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## gahdzila (Apr 29, 2010)

I broke my own rule this time. I ordinarily try to refrain from reading others' reviews before writing mine, but not this time. I've smoked several bowls of HOTW over the last few days...enough that I think I've got a pretty good handle on it. But I'm consistantly picking up flavors that I don't really know how to describe, other than "the flavor of HOTW."...so I did read a couple of reviews tonight before writing mine. Turns out that wasn't terribly helpful, as no one seems to be tasting what I'm tasting. Nonetheless, here goes.

HOTW is a medium brown ribbony broken flake. The smell I get in the tin is a thick syrupy sweet aroma. Others describe fruit notes, but I dont get any. It's a hint on the moist side. It's fairly well behaved right out of the tin, but it does benefit from a little drying time.

Like I mentioned, I've read other guys' reviews, but I don't see anyone describing the dominant flavor I'm getting. I do taste the malty-yeasty flavor others describe, but it's subtle. Stronger than that is some sort of herb or root or something that I can't quite put a finger on. The closest thing I can think of is root beer. There! I said it. HOTW tastes like root beer to me. No vanilla and no pepper like some root beers....but whatever essence there is that makes root beer distinctly taste like root beer is what I'm tasting. It's not at all strong or overpowering (and not even quite the dominant flavor) but it's quite distinct and once I noticed it, I taste it with every puff. On top, the biggest most up front flavor to me is a very distinct syrupiness (is that even a word? LOL). When I was a child, I remember my grandmother making homemade biscuits for breakfast when I stayed over with her. She always served them with some kind of syrup that came in a big brassy metal can with a pry off lid that looked like a can of paint. It was thicker than most breakfast maple syrups are today, and it tasted different....I dont know what exactly it was, to be honest. But it was sweet, had an interesting "other" flavor to it, and I loved it. I probably haven't had anything like it in 30 years. But that old timey country syrup in the big brassy can - that's the dominant flavor of HOTW.

I would call HOTW a little stronger than medium in strength of nicotine, but not in the same league as powerhouses like Royal Yacht and the like.

I received a sample of HOTW in the Newbie Sampler Trade when I first started smoking pipes. I remember thinking that I liked it ok, enough that I wanted to revisit it...but I was initially turned off by the fact that it's only available in 100g cans. That seemed like a huge mountain of tobacco back then. Rattray's? Are you reading this? Smaller tins! 100g isn't a big deal to me now, but I could certainly see some shying away from this fine tobacco simply because they were unsure about buying a large quantity.

So....yeah, I like it. I like it a lot in fact. Not a new favorite, but a very tasty bit of pipe weed. I will almost certainly buy some HOTW again. All this I'm reading about how well it ages has me intrigued enough that I want to buy some more and put it up for a while.


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## Hambone1 (May 31, 2011)

Okay, here is my review. 

Initial Tin open:

Initially I really couldn’t smell a strong scent coming from the tin when I first opened it. I had to really place my nose in the can to get a smell from it. I really couldn’t tell you any other distinct orders beside tobacco. I thought the tobacco was really moist out of the tin. Almost as moist as some of the Aromatics that I smoke. 

The Smoke:

I loaded my first bowl directly from the tin and attempted to light it before I left for work. But I was having difficulty lighting the bowl with what I thought to be the moisture level of the tobacco. So I decided to wait until I got to work, place it on a piece of wax paper I carry in my tobacco pouch and let it dry during the day on my desk and then smoke it on the way home. When I did get ready to depart for home, the tobacco had dried nicely. I reloaded my pipe and to my surprise I couldn’t get all the dried tobacco into the bowl. So I put the remainder into the pouch. But I did recognize the smell of the tobacco, it reminded me of cigarette tobacco and I HATE cigarettes! I lite the bowl and off I was on the drive home. It burned extremely hot to me and was uncomfortable to smoke. It had a strong taste, just tobacco to me. I couldn’t tell you of any other distinct taste besides a strong taste of tobacco. It did not sit well with me at all, I was spitting out the window the whole drive because I was salivating like crazy. It actually made me choke up and gag a couple of times. Needless to say I did not enjoy the first bowl at all!

I didn’t want to give up on it so I’ve had about 6 bowls in total and I can tell you that I sincerely don’t like it at all. All the subsequent bowls were about the same as the first. This is about the 6 straight Virginia tobacco that I’ve smoked and I have come to the conclusion that it isn’t for me. I separated my 3.5 tin into 2 half pint jars and buried them deep into my cellar.

Conclusion:

I’ve decided that Virginia or Virginia with Perique is not a tobacco for me. Which is a shame because I’ve actually purchased some tins of both based of other reviews and popularity of them. For now I’ll just keep them cellared and see what the future has in store for those tins. Because as of right now, they are being moved to the back of my cellar and I won’t get smoking them anytime soon.

If you guys pick another Virginia or Virginia with Perique as the monthly review, I won’t be participating….LOL!


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## Nick S. (Jul 10, 2011)

Nice reviews guys, keep 'em coming...

Shawn, I am a big believer that if you know you don't like something than don't smoke it, there are too many different kinds of tobacco out there and everyone should be able to find something they really love. That being said, I didn't really care for Virginias until this past year, luckily I had some that I had tried a few years ago and had been sealed up since so I was able to try some aged Virginias once my taste came around to it... so just keep that stuff in the back of your cellar for a few years... you never know your tastes may change, then you will have some aged stuff to smoke. Just out of curiosity your "just smoked" says you just had some Escudo, how did you like that?


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## Hambone1 (May 31, 2011)

Nick S. said:


> Just out of curiosity your "just smoked" says you just had some Escudo, how did you like that?


I didn't, but like you said. I assume my taste may change so I don't think it's a great loss at the items I've purchased because I can cellar them and try them sometime later. Seems I might enjoy them with some age on them. We shall see.


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## Desertlifter (Feb 22, 2011)

Hello hello artillery ....queen of battle, follow me...

Last time I smoked while in a truck I was in the army.

So today I decided to change that. Best of all, I had this nice sample of HoTW waiting to burn. And concoct one of my sorry reviews. Here goes.....

Today my usual smoking partner - Shady the mutt - was in bed as I fired up my trusty pickup and went to work. Work today consisted of eight hours of number theory, pedagogy, and overall math geek-ness. Naturally, this was a nicotine/caffeine day. Just a coffee wasn't going to do it. Packed up my rig - valise, coffee, pipe, pipe tool, matches, and bag o' Rattray's - turned on NPR and off I went.

In the tin....err....ziploc:
Before heading out I took another sniff of HoTW to get a good idea of what I might be getting myself into. HoTW smells of tobacco, carries a slight sweetness to it, and to my untrained nose has an undercurrent of raisins hanging out. Not a tobacco I'd leave out in a bowl to act as manly potpourri, but not too bad either.

<Crack!> Get in the cob!
Packed about a 3/4 bowl today to fit my short commute. The tobacco is cut to a ribbon kind of ...flake, right? It packed easily, but it seemed like it filled the bowl more quickly. Probably due to what I term as "sproinginess factor." Yes, you can use that. Ashed the bowl, tamped, and lit it. Time to head in. This was easy to light after sitting out for a couple of days.

Today was my first pipe smoking experience that was more or less indoors. The cab of my truck was a very different experience smoking than the back patio. It seemed that the pipe stayed lit more easily, although it is just as likely due to my paying more attention to sipping, rather than dragging/puffing on the pipe. Smoke was initially white and fluffy, and the tobacco was slightly sweet. Most of the flavor was that faint raisin and tobacco, however. Pleasant, but not particularly complex. To this point there was little or no nic hit, even for an early morning smoke.

Toward the halfway point I lost the smoke, which thinned out and required a re-light. Conveniently enough I was then presented with a stop sign, and took care of it forthwith. It fired back up, the smoke back thick and rich. This half of the bowl showed a bit of pepper, which could well have been a bit of tongue bite due to less tobacco between the fire (so to speak) and me. Experts?

I finished out the bowl with a bit of dottle in the bottom - less than some other tobaccos I've smoked. In the end this was a pleasant enough - although not particularly complex - smoke. I like the escudo much better, but I wouldn't throw this out either. I would like to try Rattray's other blends - this puts them on the list. HoTW I would term to be mild-medium in body and mild in strength.

Addendum: One thing that I noticed toward the end of the bowl was that part of the sweetness was from the cob. Now that I've smoked enough bowls with different tobaccos I can identify it. No doubt my experience would be different with either a briar or meer. Need to get one.


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## freestoke (Feb 13, 2011)

I liked the review beaucoup, Brian! (I do hope that Shady wasn't in the bed of your truck, however. oke

I was going to write one myself, but I'll wait until later and write it while I'm smoking some in the Mayfair.


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## freestoke (Feb 13, 2011)

Hambone1 said:


> If you guys pick another Virginia or Virginia with Perique as the monthly review, I won't be participating&#8230;.LOL!


Looks like you're safe next month, Nightcap or University Flake. :tu

Definitely seems like you have a bad reaction to it. I'm suspecting that the cigarette taste is from the Kentucky rather than the perique, though. Could be that you're smoking too dry, too. Probably something in between how it was fresh and getting it a little too crispy might have turned out a little better, but no matter. It's definitely not my favorite perique, either.


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## freestoke (Feb 13, 2011)

After smoking it with a variety of different pipes, packs and moisture levels, I've settled on a fresh-from-the-can Frank fill in the Sasieni Mayfair for the review. While it can be somewhat hard to light, once you do get a decent ember it behaves very well. Smoked dry it seems a bit acrid; I think the moisture level is just about right as it comes. 

In the can, it smells a bit like raisins to me. Certainly not a strong smell of fruit, nothing like Erinmore or University Flake, but it seems a little in that direction. The cut is "broken flake" they say, and I can buy that. A close inspection of what on first glimpse appears to be ribbon reveals strands that can be further separated, so broken flake it is. 

The first light is definitely flake-like, a bit difficult with a slow start. Like so many flakes, the smoke volume is small in the beginning, with an ember that grows into the pile only slowly, but as it proceeds (with a little help from the tamper) the smoke volume picks up. By mid bowl, it has begun to get creamier and sweeter, with small draws producing a bite free, satisfying mouthful of smoke. A few harder, longer puffs can fire up the ember now, and it settles into a beautiful burn. These longer draws are the opportunity to sample the perique snorkiness quotient and it's most certainly ample, though hardly overpowering. 

An occasional gentle assist from the tamper and it continues to smoke with no threat of extinction. Although recalcitrant in catching fire, once alight it has the thoroughgoing combustion that we expect of a well-rubbed flake. (One can only wonder who rubbed out all those flakes for all those cans of tobacco! That has to be a heady job indeed, since skin readily takes up nicotine!) It took several matches to get the first decent ember and another a little further in to help it along, but once established it stays lit very well. As the end of the smoke nears, it clearly develops a bit more kick than earlier, with a heftier snork as well. The taste of the Kentucky and perique begins to dominate the Virginia sweetness the further into the smoke we go. The nicotine load is solid, just shy of strong, either delivered largely at the end or the last of the smoke merely representing the cumulative effect of the whole bowl. 

I like HOTW rather a lot, but it's not Reiner LGF. It's stronger than LGF by a skosh, but has a rougher way about it. All in all, a straightforward smoke of some potency, overwhelming neither in its perique nor in its nicotine content. One has to like burley, most definitely. While it contains substantial amounts of Virginia, the character develops more in the direction of Kentucky Kendal than Full Virginia Flake. The tobacco taste is full but not at all refined -- merely very good in a sturdy way. The flavoring, lightly detectable in the can, is almost non-existent after the first quarter bowl and not much even before that, so whatever it may add is completely masked early on. 

As good as it is, I doubt that I will buy more. I almost feel guilty about it, but there are only so many things to fit into the rotation! I like other periques better, that's all, preferring my perique with more Virginia and less (or no) burley.


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## jfserama (Mar 26, 2009)

I really enjoy this blend. It has enough taste to keep me interested through a whole bowl, plenty of nicotine to awaken me, and it burns well. It stays lit well for smoking while driving, it has a strong enough taste to be smoked after a good meal, yet it is subtle enough to be enjoyed with a quiet reflection.

I kept putting this review off since I've been trying to formulate my thoughts into something coherent, but it's almost the end of the month and it doesn't really look like that is going to happen… So, in short, this blend reminds me of a strong Orlik Golden Sliced. It has a similar taste profile, but is in the stronger flavor and nicotine departments. And, since OGS just might be my all-time favorite smoke, I couldn't be happier with this blend. In fact, I already picked up another tin for aging!


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## MarkC (Jul 4, 2009)

Interesting reviews, guys. HOTW is, if not my favorite, definitely in the top three. Here's a few tips I've picked up for enjoying this tobacco...

1. Air it out! Just dump the tobacco out on a plate or bowl, fluff it up, and then stick it back in the can. Let it sit for a week. THEN smoke it. You'll be surprised how much better it is.
2. Don't bother with it if it's less than six months old. Actually, this pretty much applies to all virginias; they need that long just to settle down and blend well.
3. Another 'pretty much any virginia' tip: smoke it slow. No, slower than that. Look, if you want to keep your tongue, slower!!!

Naturally, I love this stuff and can't understand why everyone doesn't, but if we all liked the same thing, it would probably be out of stock all the time...


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